In our two previous posts, we have been focusing on our thoughts regarding the
design and choice of game mechanics for Cybercom; what to avoid and what to
focus on. In this post however, we are going to rewind a bit and discuss
another angle of why game mechanics are so effective in changing behaviour.
Micheal Wu has presented a series of great articles on his blog where he explains gamification by connecting BJ Fogg's Behavioural Model with game
mechanics. We're going to give a brief summery of his conclusions.
BJ Fogg's behavioural model (FBM)
Dr. BJ Fogg (Stanford University) has
developed a behavioural model which describes three elements that are
necessary for behavioural change to occur. These are Motivation, Ability and
Trigger. The model is intended to serve as a guide for designers to identify
what stops people from performing the behaviour that the designer intends. It
is also an attempt to bring clarity and structure to the subject of behaviour
which is fuzzy and overflowed with a fuzzy mass of theories. First we're going to give a very brief description of the three elements.
Motivation
There are
tons of theories on what drives and motivates people. For the sake of
understanding the model however, there is no need to dig deeper into where
motivation comes from (even if it, of course, is important when designing a
game). Motivation can basically be translated to someone’s willingness to
perform an action.
Ability
In short,
ability measures how much effort, or how much resistance one has to overcome, to
perform a given action. It might mean that you need a certain skill but might
also refer to the resources that are needed, such as time, money, etc. Fogg
sometimes uses the term simplicity to describe this element.
Trigger
Even if one has
sufficient motivation and ability for a new behaviour to take place, it
doesn't. Often a trigger is needed; something that says: now it's a great time
to do this! A good trigger however, is not only a reminder but contains
elements that increases ability or motivation and thus increases the chances of
a behaviour to happen. For example, a trigger can be a message saying that you
get something extra by doing the behaviour right now or include something that
makes it easier to do (facebook's friend-finder function, which makes it easy to connect with friends with only one click, is a good example).
The three
elements together
A central
conclusion in the theory is that when the three
elements occur at the same time the target person's behaviour will change, i.e.
when motivation and ability is high enough and the behaviour is
triggered. The line in the model (shown above) illustrates the
activation threshold which marks the crossing which the person has to be above
to be willing to change his or her behaviour. It clearly shows that if the
motivation is low, ability must be high and vice versa.
Connecting the model with gamifcation
PhD Michael
Wu at Lithium Technologies uses Fogg’s model to describe how game mechanics
effectively can change a person’s behaviour. He compares games with social
media which has proven very effective when it comes to creating new routines in
people’s lives (how often do you log in to facebook?). They do so by playing on
people’s motivation to connect with others, making it really easy to do so and
by using triggers (facebook uses notifications, emails, etc.).
“Well designed games are able to solve complementary (and relatively much harder) problems than social networks do. If used properly, gamification is able to drive long term engagement and persistent actions reliably.” (Micheal Wu)
The use of game mechanics is simply a great way to
push a person over the activation threshold and is there for very effective. The gamification system that has been
designed in this thesis serves as an example on how all three elements can be
used; the game mechanics aim to increase motivation by doing the consultancy
model more fun, to increase ability by illustrating the consultancy model in a
clear way and by providing effective and timely triggers.
We believe that these theories are important to keep in mind when designing
game mechanics. One needs to balance motivation with ability, come up with
smart triggers and have good timing with all the elements in order to create a
greate gamified system!
To read more about Wu and Fogg's theories please see the following links:
Keep gaming!
